Slain UGA Jogger Laken Riley’s Cause of Death Revealed
‘DISFIGURING’
Laken Riley, the nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia’s campus last week, died from blunt force trauma to the head, the local coroner confirmed to People on Tuesday. Riley, 22, was reported missing by a concerned friend last Thursday after she failed to return from a jog. Police quickly found her “unconscious and not breathing” in a wooded area near the school’s intramural fields, they previously said, adding that Riley had had “visible injuries.” A 26-year-old man, Jose Ibarra, was arrested in connection with her death the next day. Ibarra was hit with a litany of charges, including felony murder, aggravated battery, and kidnapping. In an arrest affidavit obtained by People, investigators accused Ibarra of “disfiguring” Riley’s skull and using an unspecified object to further harm her. Ibarra and Riley did not know one another, police previously said, and her death is believed to have been a crime of opportunity.